The cutting, shaping and forming of wooden pieces by power tools has heretofore been limited in numerous ways by the stationary and portable woodworking tools that have been available. These limitations have posed several problems. First, prior art stationary tools such as table saws could not be simply moved to serial worksites and each workpiece had to be moved to and over the stationary table on which the cutting tool was disposed. This made for strenuous human efforts in moving the stationary table/tool and/or in moving the workpiece especially when the workpiece was large or heavy or extremely long. Long pieces of wood were particularly vexatious because they tended to bounce while being cut. If the workpiece moved in this way while being cut, the cut had to be redone or more often than not the workpiece was ruined.
Portable woodworking tools provided a solution to some of these difficulties in that bulky stationary tools would not then have to be moved from site to site, and it would then be possible to have large workpieces remain stationary while a portable tool was moved thereover. However, portable tools also have had problems. For example, though a portable circular saw is movable over a workpiece, thus removing the problem of moving large, bulky workpieces to and over a stationary table saw, a portable circular saw nevertheless has a distinct disadvantage in that it is less accurate. Uneven cuts have often resulted due to human error in the guiding of the tool or because the saw would follow or move offline due to impurities such as knots in the workpiece.
Attempts have been made to cure some of these problems with stationary and portable tools. For example, Findlay, U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,317, introduced a portable table having support attachments for movable power tools as well as for fastening stationary tools to the table. Findlay uses an elaborate parallelogram support frame for securing either sort of power tool to Findlay's table. Further, Della Polla, U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,288 and Lewin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,237, described non-portable power tool support alternatives which also provided parallelly oriented power tool guide supports or rails. Recently, Klemma, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,090, disclosed an assembly for woodworking which employs parallel guide rails to support a movable power tool.
Nonetheless, a need still exists for a simpler, portable woodworking assembly. And, the present invention is directed toward just such an assembly which obviates the prior art problems in a unique and cost efficient way and permits high quality cutting, forming and shaping of workpieces, either in the workshop or on one or more serial building sites.